A sinkhole opened outside a Suffolk County home on Thursday and swallowed three people, injuring two of them, police said.
Suffolk County cops say they responded to a home in Huntington Station just after 6 a.m. for a report of a 71-year-old woman who fell into a 10-foot-wide by an 8-foot-deep sinkhole. Her and two others, a man and a woman in the hole.
The hole was in the front yard of the single-family home on West 10th Street.
The homeowner walked out the front door, didn’t see the nearby sinkhole, and fell inside, according to surveillance video.
Homeowner Benjamin Orengo later walked out to see his wife and two others stuck in the hole, with mud above their knees.
“Really scared. They were worried about going down. I tell them don’t move. It’s like quicksand right?” Orengo said.
Orengo grabbed this extension cord and a ladder, and with the help of two Suffolk County police officers, rescued his wife and the two others. He was thankful for the safe ending.
The three people were taken to a hospital for evaluation, police said. One of them wasn’t hurt.
The town inspectors say the sinkhole may have been caused by all the heavy rain in the area and a pipe leak.
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